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Food security—access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life—is one requirement for a healthy, well-nourished population. ERS plays a leading role in Federal research on food security in U.S.

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Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators, 2019, describes trends in economic, structural, resource, and environmental indicators in the agriculture sector. The indicators covered in this report provide assessments of important ch...

Per capita U.S. availability of fresh tomatoes averaged 20.7 pounds a year in 2010-17, up from 12 pounds in the early 1980s, reflecting growing imports, changing demographics and tastes, and emerging protected-culture technologies.

In a typical week, 14 percent of at-home meal preparers used food thermometers when preparing meat and 2 percent consumed or served raw milk. This report examines food-safety practices of U.S. at-home meal preparers.

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Southeast Asia’s expanding population and increasing incomes, urbanization, and retail sectors are contributing to rising meat consumption and growing imports of feedstuffs. According to USDA’s International Long-Term Projections to 2028, t...

Droughts are among the most frequent causes of crop yield losses, failures, and subsequent crop revenue losses across the world. In corn, a major U.S. row crop with significant water needs, water stress can lead to fewer and smaller kernels...

A recent ERS study estimated the economic impacts if 90 percent of infants participating in WIC in 2016 were breastfed for 12 months and received no infant formula. Under this scenario, mothers would stay in the program longer and annual WI...

Changing Farm Structure and the Distribution of Farm Payments and Federal Crop Insurance

by Kirk White and Robert Hoppe

The distribution of commodity-related payments and Federal crop insurance indemnities to U.S. farmers has shifted to larger farms as more and more U.S. agricultural production is done on those farms. Since the operators of larger farms tend to have higher household incomes than other farm operators, commodity-related program payments and Federal crop insurance indemnities also have shifted to higher income households. By 2009, half of commodity-related program payments went to farms operated by households earning over $89,540, a quarter went to farms operated by households with incomes greater than $209,000 and 10 percent went to farms operated by households with incomes of at least $425,000. Current income eligibility caps and payment limits affect few farm households because most of them have incomes below the income caps or receive payments less than the payment limits. Based on 2009 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) data, recent proposals to lower those income caps and payment limits would still affect only a small percentage of U.S. farm households, because their incomes would still fall below the proposed income caps and payment limits. Total Government program payments to U.S. farms were $12.3 billion in 2009. Total Federal crop insurance indemnity payments were $5.2 billion in 2009.